Agricultural Research in New Hampshire 



During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1945, the war clouds were 

 finally riven by the capitulation of Japan. This country, as the second 

 of the last two Axis powers to succumb, signed her articles of surrender, 

 September 2, 1945. This second World War, was the costliest and most 

 destructive of all time. Of this there can be no question. The cost of 

 the war was put at $1,154,000,000,000 for the world in armament and 

 military materials with an added $230,900,000,000 for civilian property 

 damage. These estimates based on surveys made and compiled by James 

 H. Brady and the American University do not include the money spent 

 and the damage done incident to hostilities in China, because none of the 

 figures for that country were available. 



The dead in World War II, including both military and civilian, 

 was placed at 22,060,000 according to a compilation released by the Vati- 

 can in November; the same report placed the wounded at 34,400,000. 

 Several international agencies had contributed to this resume. 



These losses in money and in man power are still only an. index to 

 resulting total costs. They do not measure the loss of time and materials 

 in the feverish conversion of civilian effort to war production; much less 

 do they measure the difficulties of going back to peace-time pursuits. The 

 probabilities of a long postwar period of adjustment and readjustment 

 before the dislocation of men and materials and the attendant price rela- 

 tionships can be restored to a semblance of equilibrium is scarcely less 

 than obvious. 



As New Hampshire farmers anticipate the cessation, or gradual alle- 

 viation, of some of the difficulties incident to wartime restrictions and 

 burdens imposed by the rigors of such a war they can harbor no small 

 amount of pride in the contribution they made to the successful culmina- 

 tion of this conflict. Not only did our farmers furnish a quota of food 

 commensurate with our natural resources of soil and climate but they 

 did it in spite of decreasing man-power in order to contribute a full share 

 of farm-raised boys to help to fill the ranks of the far-flung battle lines. 



And some of the morale for agricultural production rested on more 

 personal and intimate considerations than the general recognition that an 

 army travels on its stomach. A farmer might think of his own boy as 

 one who could easily come to be stationed at some outpost in a far-away 

 inhospitable climate among people whose foreign words were unintelli- 

 gible. The ennui of such an existence for a small group might be more 

 unendurable even than the dangers of the fiercest fighting on the most 

 active front. Any shortage of food for such a handful of men in its lone- 

 ly life could supersede in importance everything else. The failure of one 

 meal might initiate mental misgivings too serious to contemplate. With 

 such thoughts in mind, long hours or tired muscles on New Hampshire 

 farms were not sufficient handicaps to decrease production. Production 

 was increased. 



Not only did older people, women, and children rally to labor for 

 more crop and animal production but machinery whenever available was 



